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Thursday, July 24, 2014

RS Revival - The Good, the Bad, and the Rusted

A few friends stopped by to help tear apart the RS today. Ironically, both are same-year Imprezas only in the Sedan and Wagon bodystyles... so we actually had all 3 types present! Only trouble was that the Coupe was in pretty bad shape, so I managed to take a picture of one of the few bits that WASN'T torn apart before they left. You can at least tell it's a coupe from the wing, right?

Today's work revolved around body issues. We removed both bumpers and got a feel for just how much work the rear quarter panels were going to be.

It's bad. Much worse than I had anticipated. The rear passenger quarter panel was practically disintegrating as we took the bumper off. Water had obviously been getting in here for quite a long time, as it managed to separate the fender well with the rear quarter panel from the top all the way down... and then some.

The other side actually isn't as bad, but both will certainly need new metal welded in. There's some minor surface rust elsewhere on the bumpers (front and rear) so that's not a huge issue. With the bumpers off, it means we can also finally repaint the front bumper too! I had originally planned on nabbing some Fog Light covers to complete the "Version 6 STi" look, but all of a sudden, they seem scarce to come by online. I may just skip that bit, as it's not crucial to have them.

It's gonna take a little more work than I had anticipated, but we've come this far so there's no use giving up now!

I'm working on the front and back of the car at the same time, but there's much less work to do up front. As things progress, the car will eventually be completed from the front on backwards, but it'll be driveable this whole time. Trips between my garage, the shop, and other places I'm getting help from are still possible, so it's nice not to need a tow!